In the server environments, disk storage is becoming more and more important, and the choice of hard drives is very broad - connectivity intefaces (SAS, SATA) and their speeds, rotational speeds, desktop vs nearline vs enterprise drives, form-factors and so on. How to choose the most appropriate HDD drive type?

The purpose of this document is to discuss currently available internal and external HDD storage interfaces for IBM® System x® servers and to provide recommendations on how to choose the right options to better fit business needs and application requirements. The document is organized into the following sections: